Club Notes

This week’s club notes come from Bruff, Newcastle West and Waterford City rugby clubs.

This week’s club notes come from Bruff, Newcastle West and Waterford City rugby clubs.

Bruff RFC

Courtesy of:- Seamus Sheahan, Club PRO

UBL Round 4

The Bruff first xv put in their best performance of the season on Saturday to beat Tullamore 39.10 in Round 4 of the Ulster Bank League. Bruff’s opening 3 games were a mixed bag with a loss, a win and a draw to show from their previous outings. Tullamore on the other hand have been less fortunate and Saturdays defeat leaves them occupying the last spot on the league table. Bruff have jumped to 3rd on the table but won’t be getting carried away as 1 loss in this league could see them drop 4 places with very little between the teams. On the other side 1 win could propel any of 4 teams including Bruff to top spot.

Bruff led 15.5 at half time thanks to two tries and a penalty from a very impressive young Bruff backline. Brian Fanning scored the first of the tries after 10 minutes after taking a lovely pass from Graham Whelan with the initial break coming from Jack O Grady. Fanning and Whelan combined again on the stroke of half time to run the length of the pitch for Fannings 2nd score of the half. Davie O Grady kicked a conversion and a penalty in another impressive performance from the Knockainey man. Tullamore’s try came after 5 minutes.

The Bruff metal was tested early in the 2nd half with Tullamore closing the gap to 15-10 through a 2nd try with 46 minutes gone in the game. O Grady kicked a penalty after 50 minutes to help settle the Bruff nerves and put 2 scores between the teams again. Bruff started to dominated possession and were rewarded in the 60th minute when Tony Cahill went over for a try which O Grady again converted to make it 25.10. Bruff were now chasing a try bonus and that was secured in the 69th Minute when backrower Maghnus Collins linked with Tony Cahil for the BP score. Bruff added a 5th try with the last play of the game with Cian Ryan showing some nice skills to put Eric Finn in for the score.

The league takes a break now for a few weeks with the seniors returning to UBL action on the 28th of October with a home game vs 7th placed Seapoint. Bruff suffered 2 defeats to the Dubliners last season and will need to be on top form to come out of the game with a win.

Bruff travelled to Annacotty for round 2 of the North Munster section1 u-14 rugby league Sunday morning against UL Bohemians.
Slippery conditions underfoot contributed to an error-strewn opening period. With both defences on top, scoring opportunities were limited and it was no surprise for it to remain nil all at half time.
The bench was emptied at half time and an increase in intensity saw Bruff break the deadlock with a well taken try by Paul O’Brien May following a series of Bruff attacks culminating in a quick tap penalty and a sweeping back line move. The opening score was followed shortly after by an intercept try by Shane O’Brien as UL-Bohs were pressing through midfield.
Mid-way through the second half, Bruff, were getting on top and repelling the opposition with some hard tackling and defensive discipline. The scoring was rounded off by Adam Murphy Casey who got in in the corner after a number of phases which stretched the UL-Bohs defence across both sides of the field, to leave it 0-15 to Bruff at the long whistle after a keenly contested affair.
Squad on the day as follows: 1. Daire O’Brien 2. Michael Clifford 2. Ryan O’Neill 4. James O’Sullivan 5. Alex Finn 6. Oisin Feely 7. Josh McMahon 8. Sean O’Dwyer (capt) 9. Jake O’Riordan 10. Cian Scully 11. Tadhg Corkery 12. Sean Carroll 13. Patrick O’Dea 14. Paul O’Brien May 15.Jack McNamara 16. Adam Murphy Casey 17. Shane O’Brien 18. Mikey Fitzgibbon 19. Iestyn Winn 20. Shane Lynch 21.Arthur Maher.

Shannon are next up at home in Killballyowen on October 22nd.

Club Memberships

Membership letters have now been posted and all returning members are asked to note that this year’s membership includes entry to the Your Club Your Country draw for those you have paid before the end of November. The draw take’s place on Monday the 11th of December.

Members are also asked to note that there is now a link available to pay memberships online. The link is available through the website at www.Bruffrfc.com . Memberships can also be paid to any committee members. New members are also welcome and eligible to entry the draw as part of the membership package.

The second game of the season saw us travel to our local rivals, Abbeyfeale RFC for the highly anticipated derby game. After last year’s pre-Christmas cracker both sets of supporters were looking forward to a similar encounter in The Grove. A combination of early season rustiness and a gale blowing across the pitch quickly put paid to any notions of a repeat of last year’s encounter. An opening exchange of penalties from Sean Herlihy and Derry O’Connor had the team’s level after the first quarter before Sean Murphy crossed the Abbeyfeale line on 22 minutes with Sean Herlihy converting. The scrumhalf then crossed for his own try on 35 minutes to leave the visitors leading 15-3 at the break. Newcastle West took control of the tie on 52 minutes with a well worked try finished by Sean Ivess. At 20-3 the hosts sparked into life and upped the physical stakes. A try on 68 minutes left just 12 between the teams and with Newcastle West under pressure the home side pushed on and scored again to leave just a converted try between the team’s with 2 minutes on the clock. Superb defence from Newcastle West in the face of sustained pressure on their line saw us hold on for a vital win. Final score 13-20 to the visitors.

A thoroughly entertaining game served up by 2 top class division 1 teams

Shannon Town visitors, St Senans RFC provided a tougher test than the score line suggests last Sunday in Cullinagh. A dominant opening half saw Sean Herlihy open the scoring with a penalty on 5 minutes and he then followed up with his own converted try on 23 minutes for a 10-0 lead. Cian Hinchey then went over on 38 minutes, with Sean again converting to leave NCW with a commanding 17-0 lead at the break. St Senans opened both their match and season accounts with a penalty on 48 minutes and from there on their pack domination turned the tide on the first half proceedings. A converted try with 13 minutes to go left the hosts hanging on at 17-10 and St Senans to their credit pushed all the way to the final whistle when Sean Herlihy broke away from inside his own half to finish in the left hand corner to secure the win. Final score in Cullinagh was 22-10.

On Friday night last, our U16’s travelled to Castleisland in our second game in 5 days. With a number of players missing and heavy traffic getting to the pitch, our preparation was far from ideal. Unfortunately it also had a negative effect on our start to the game as we allowed a physical Castleisland team score a length of the field try. Once we started to hold onto the ball and gain field position, we really came into the game. Yet we still could not get on the scoresheet. We were also slow in dealing with the drizzly conditions with a number of passes going to ground and not to hand. The first half was very scrappy and neither team were able to dominate, but all 30 players on the pitch gave all they had. We managed to eke a penalty out of a stingy home defence which Andrew Mortell slotted home. All day long our lineout was dominant, not just on our ball but also on defensive ball. We turned over the home lineout 5 times throughout the evening with the Lyons brothers being Twin Towers at the set piece. The ball into them was on a plate with Cormac Browne hitting his target all day long. The half time score was 7-3 with both teams believing they were in with a strong chance of taking the spoils.

The second half was much more physical that the first, as well as more tetchy. Both teams knew what a win would do in the lead up to the Pan-Munster championship. Castleisland got off to a better start to the second half, controlling field position and possession. They turned their control into points as they went over the whitewash to go 14-3 up. Our lads never let their heads drop and led by captain Jack Corkery and some big carries from Gavin Collins we got back into strong field position. We had many chances to go over for our first try but twice got bundled into touch. We got a strong scrum in the opposition 22 and following a strong line break from Eddie Murphy and Sean McMahon as well as a good carry close in from Bobby Donovan, it looked like we would go over the line for our first try of the game but sadly we just dropped it forward over the line. But it was a sign of things to come. That attack gave us a renewed vigour and we went on the attack once more. The clock was starting to work against us with the game entering the final 5 minutes. Then we struck when Conor Power, who was like the energiser bunny all night went over the line, carrying 3 Castleisland forwards with him. Andrew Mortell added the conversion to leave us knowing that a try would put us into the lead for the first time in the game. We once again worked our way down the pitch. With the final play of the game, Jack Kiely made a half break and offloaded to Conor Power who went into the corner and touched down to give us the lead and the win.

This was a great performance and result and the boys showed incredible heart in the face of huge odds against us in the form of late arrivals, missing players and a poor start. Training continues Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 in Killeline.

Membership for Adults, Players, Families and Youths is now payable on line. You can pay your membership by going to our website page www.Newcastlewestrfc.com or on our Facebook page Newcastle West Rugby Football Club on left side of face book page you will see Pay Membership click on this and it will take you to payment options for membership. You can contact us on Facebook or any committee member if you have any issues and we will be glad to help you out.

Lotto

Our lotto draw takes place every Friday night. It’s our primary club fundraiser and tickets are available from various outlets and promotors. Tickets are €2.00 or 3 for €5.00.

Next week’s draw will be in The Forge Inn on Friday 13th October The jackpot stands at €13,600

Waterford City RFC

Courtesy of:- Deirdre Barry, Club PRO

125th Anniversary Ball

In 2018 Waterford City rugby club celebrates its 125th year making them the oldest rugby club in Ireland. To mark this anniversary we are having a Gala Ball (Black tie) on Friday January 26th at 7:00pm in Tower Hotel Music by the pearly and whites with late bar and DJ.

Tickets on sale this week and can be bought from Ben Duggan, Jemma Jacob, John McNamara, Tony Coady and Paul Ryan. Tickets are priced at €75 per person. We would love to see as many past players and members as well as all new members and parents attend the ball.

Mini’s Rugby

Our minis teams headed to Waterpark on Sunday morning for their first blitz of the season against Waterpark and Dungarvan. A great morning was had by all and all players played extremely well and represented Waterford City so well. We are all very proud of you.

Match Report from U10’s. Great performance by the team on Sunday morning, they were narrowly beaten in the first match against Waterpark but came out in their second match with fire in their belly’s and won well against a strong Waterpark team. In the final encounter they played Dungarvan and again through pure grit and determination came out winners again. Very proud coaches this morning because the boys left everything on the pitch and scored some amazing individual and well worked team tries. Always remember #WE ARE CITY